


Cold War

by Andraste



Category: Planetary
Genre: Gen, Yuletide, challenge:Yuletide 2005, recipient:serenissima
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-12-25
Updated: 2005-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-09 20:25:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/91237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andraste/pseuds/Andraste
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jakita meets and old friend for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cold War

As she prepared to launch herself through the skylight, Jakita Wagner followed procedure long enough to give her support rope a firm tug. A fall would not hurt her, but landing on the alarmed floor below might make life slightly too interesting. The trick was allowing enough give so that she could reach the file cabinet, but not so much that she would risk touching the ground.

Her blood was singing with adrenaline, and she thrilled at finally being able to to try out what she had trained for so long. She had been told that she might be nervous or even frightened on her first mission, but Jakita hadn't been able to stop grinning for hours. She was almost hoping that this would prove to be something more than a routine document retrieval.

Her laser cutter sliced through the glass and wire with predictable efficiency, and she managed to catch the part of the skylight she had cut through before it fell and gave her away. As she attached the rope and began her descent, she was thinking that the evening might be something of an anti-climax if everything went this smoothly.

Then she caught sight of the man leaning against one of the filing cabinets in the office below.

Jakita was proud of the way her instincts kicked in, making her reach for her gun as at the same time she stretched out a foot to brace herself and stop her fall.

"Good evening," he said casually, in English, "I've disabled the alarm, so you should feel free to come down."

If Jakita had believed in such things, she might have thought he was a ghost. He was certainly pale enough, with pure white hair that belied his indeterminate age, and he was wearing a white suit to match. If he was a fellow spy, it seemed he was a reckless or incompetent one. Then again, she had to admire his nerve. He didn't look much like a security guard, or anyone else who might actually belong on an English military base.

He was probably speaking the truth about the alarm - and if not, it was immaterial. According to the plans she had studied, he would have set it off himself in opening the door and if he _was_ security she had already been discovered. Without taking her eyes or her gun off the stranger, she lowered herself the last few feet to the floor.

"Explain yourself, or I'll kill you where you stand."

"There's no need for violence," he said, jerking his head at the gun. "I'm not here to stop you taking the rocket plans, and you don't really want to shoot me."

"I might." Certainly if he maintained that smug tone of voice, it would start to seem tempting. She'd been trained to recognize accents, but his was cosmopolitan and difficult to place. "What are you doing here?" It was a ridiculous question - as if he'd actually tell her! - but it was hard to think of a better way to find out.

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I am here to serve my country." There was no point in pretending to be anything other than what she was. She lowered the gun slightly, although she didn't relax.

"Somehow I doubt that," he said, amusement colouring his voice. "My guess is you just have an extremely low boredom threshold, and the Stasi helps you to keep occupied."

Jakita raised an eyebrow. "You seem to know a lot about me for a man I've known all of sixty seconds."

"Don't be so sure about that, Jakita Wagner."

She schooled her expression carefully. So he knew her name. It was irritating, but it didn't prove that he knew anything else about her or her mission.

"If we'd met before, I'm certain I'd recall."

"You wouldn't." He turned his back to her and stepped away from the filing cabinet. It was, of course, the one that held the plans she was here to steal.

"So, you'd like to catch up on old times I don't remember?"

He moved away to her left, in the direction of the door, apparently not at all bothered by her loaded weapon. "As it happens, I came to give you some friendly advice about the agent planning to intercept you at your rendezvous point in an hour. It would be a tragedy if your career ended before it began, wouldn't it?"

She frowned. This put a different spin on things. "You're a friend of the GDR?"

"Not at all," he said, shrugging, "but I'd hate for anything to happen to you. If you ask me, I think you should find a profession more worthy of your ... particular talents."

She covered her surprise that he knew about _those_ with a smile. "Circus acrobat, perhaps? International jewel thief?"

"Those professions have more dignity than you current line of work. I'd hoped for something better from you."

"I don't know who you think you are, telling me what career I should pursue." He'd left the filing cabinet free, and she crossed to it with caution, trying to keep an eye on him while she slid the draw open.

"I'm a man who has your best interests in mind. If I'd known how the political situation in your country would develop, I would have - well, things would have been different."

It was impossible to know what he meant by that. "I think I know better than you what my interests are." She found the plans that she was looking for, and ostentatiously removed them from the cabinet. He didn't appear to be alarmed, or even especially interested, that she had achieved the first part of her objective.

"In that case, I'll leave you for the evening - we'll see each other again." He moved toward the door, and turned to look at her over his shoulder. "You remind me of your mother."

Jakita knew that he could not mean Mutti - the gentle farmer's wife with no children of her own who had raised her. Which meant that -

"Hey, wait!"

Heedless of any security measures she might breach or guards she might run into, she bolted after him, sure that he must be heading for the outer door that opened onto the yard, although she couldn't see him in the darkened corridor. The door was open when she reached it, and the yard suspiciously empty. Perhaps he had dealt with the guards at the same time he disabled the alarm. Glancing around, she saw nobody at all.

Jakita shivered, pulling her jacket tighter around herself. Somehow the temperature seemed to have dropped several degrees in the brief interval since she had gone inside. She told herself that it didn't matter that he was gone. She had training, and resources, and one day she would find him again.

Tucking the file into her bag, Jakita wondered what would happen to the man she was meant to be meeting, the one the stranger had said would be intercepted by an enemy agent. Part of her wanted to go to the rendezvous point regardless of the warning, just to see if he'd spoken the truth. It was more important, though, to deliver the plans to her superiors without incident through different channels. There would be other missions.

She vaulted the fence with ease and made her escape without a backward glance, not pausing to wonder why the wire was covered with frost in late spring.


End file.
